eowens2 that is very useful.
My inclination was to start with Debian and this confirms it.
A shame about Fedora as I thought they had optimised the driver for the broadcom graphics component . . .
10 seconds is a good boot time - well done to Arch.
Starting with stability is a good approach to bootstrap from. Debian will include a C compiler . . . and away we go._________________Puppy WIKI

However, also on the same site
Fedora recommended by non-expert non-linux user

Quote:

The Fedora Remix seems to be the recommended option on the Raspberry Pi site. If you don't know much about installing Linux distros, then this is the route to take because a special image installer program is provided which runs under Windows

Here is an interesting review of of real-world performance of major distros on an honest-to-goodness R-Pi:

http://www.designspark.com/content/raspberry-pi-review

Thanks from me too.

Right now I am downloading the Debian image, and I was wondering what others to download. After reading that review, the only other one that I will download will be the Arch Linux image._________________http://bkhome.org/news/

I didn't get in on the 1st round of shipments, so I won't be able to do this myself, but I will put it out there.

We may try rebuilding the kernel with localyesconfig (with all necessary modules already loaded), followed by an allmodconfig to pick up any extra modules. This will improve boot speeds and reduce the size and init complexity a bit._________________Web Programming - Pet Packaging 100 & 101

ive bought a few of the 7" tablets running android to try to get a sense of how to set things up for ARM but its a crap shoot if the tablet will actually boot a linux from a micro sd card, i have struck one that doesnt. Im glad the raspberry will be released soon so we will all have a hardware standard that we know will actually work.

I have the Debian image working in Slacko under QEMU, but no network!
If anyone know how to get the network thing working, please let me know!
In the mean-time, is there any other way of getting JWM source code into the VM?
mark_________________My System:Arch-Arm on RPi!
"RacyPy" puplet on Toshiba Tecra 8200. PIII, 256 MB RAM.
RaspberryPy: Lobster and I blog about the RPi.

I am hopefully about to retry starting X in a few minutes. I've tried various approaches, but in the end I had to start from scratch with the official arch image. I've got my wifi working and my powered hub seems to be okay (using it to provide the Pi with a swap partition on a usb drive).
Baby steps at the moment.
mark_________________My System:Arch-Arm on RPi!
"RacyPy" puplet on Toshiba Tecra 8200. PIII, 256 MB RAM.
RaspberryPy: Lobster and I blog about the RPi.

letting yall know that i have uploaded my first slimmed debian image for the Rasp Pi:

http://www.thepussycatforest.info/pussy-pie/rasp-image-bare.img.zip

It is 114mb but compared to SAP, its the same size on the linux OS partition. If i compressed it using .xz like barry has with SAP then it would be within 1 or 2mb the same size.

This is only stage one, and that is to use the Debian image provided by the Rasp Pi people and remove all the crud. The default image uses more than 90% of the 1.7gb linux partition, but this version only uses 18%.

Other than removing stuff that isnt needed for the type of OS we are aiming for, the ssh server is installed and working on first boot, this means that you can immediately log into your Rasp Pi using ssh protocol (the ssh command in a terminal or using something like the Putty program) and there is no need to attach a monitor or mouse and keyboard at all. The Rasp Pi people have a well sorted out dhcp client working and i have kept that intact. Simply connect to your network, switch it on, and then look on your router to find the address or try pinging the ip address that is one more than the highest ip address on your network. If you get a response then you know your Pi is on that ip.

JWM is installed as the window manager and dillo is the web browser.
I havent entered any menu entries into the JWM menu so you may have to launch dillo by opening a terminal. Xterm has been installed so that xinit will work for those of you who want more control over the xorg environment, this launces xorg with no WM.

If you are logging into your Pi via a network then use root as the username and pussy as the password. If you are using a monitor and physically sitting infront of the Pi and have a keyboard connected then use pi as the username and raspberry as the password. I dont know why it doesnt allow root logins that arent from a network. If you want to use root then after logging in, type: su root
then when you are asked to enter the password, enter: pussy
Note: to use the apt-get system to install things you need to use su or sudo and be using apt-get as root.

This isnt a real pussy yet, and it isnt even the promised server pussy. Server pussy will be released shortly and will have web, ftp, telnet and ssh servers working on first boot and no need to even connect a monitor.
This version only has the ssh server working, the others arent installed yet, however modern ftp clients that allow you to use sftp connections (ftp over ssh) will let you sftp into the rasp and you will be able to access its filesystem just like you can when using ftp.

Right now its roughly the same size as Puppy, but it will end up being bigger than Puppy as we have alot of stuff to add to make it a pussy.

All the device drivers work as they should as they have not been messed with and remain the same left over from the original Rasp Pi official debian image. This image runs a mixture of wheezy and squeeze as far as i can make out, and its repo that it uses with apt get is the raspberian repo not the normal debian one, but it seems to contain everything the debians ones have + all the specific rasp stuff so we will keep this as the main repo.

This version will not be of any use at all to normal users that expect a Puppy or Pussy type system, this is a only a bare bare bare minimum and the X session is only a tool to help you organize your Xterm sessions or to use dillo to surf the web, nothing else is there. This is only a base that will be useful to developers or hackers or those brave enough to apt-get everything they want to use. I dont mind if other developers want to use this to make their own debian based OS. The Rasp Pi logo is still visible on boot. This hasnt been changed because even tho this is a very bare raw OS and not even a pussy yet, your still running it on a Rasp so the logo is still there and will stay there in future.

let me know if there is any technical issue with the image, i kinda had to guess the byte sizes when i was imaging it and i cant test it correctly until i get my 2gb sd cards in the mail, the source sd card i was using was 8gb but i only used the first 2gb and compied the first 2gb to the .img file then zipped it then uploaded it. If you have problems with it then please let me know and i will fix it in the next few days.

TV has been hijacked for some sporting event . . . Will have to wait for next release sickout . . .

Pussy Pie Server Edition is released now, it isnt like Puppy, it is purely a serverish type OS with only a vary sparse X environment. The X session is more to be able to manage your terminal sessions better and to use dillo to surf the web. There is nothing else there, but it can be added with apt-get. This could be a small and compatible base to start another OS project with.

http://www.thepussycatforest.info/pussy-pie/pussy-pie-server.zip

The ssh, ftp, telnet and webserver stuff works first boot and you dont need to use a monitor at all if you wanna run the server, there is no configuration you need to do.

You can login via ssh with username: root and pass: pussy
but if you are sitting at the Rasp using a mouse and keyboard and monitor then you need to login as user: pi and pass: raspberry, then if you need to do anything with root then su root and enter password: pussy, after you have logged in. This isnt ideal behavior and i will sort it out if i can, so that you can log in as root via network and normally and not have to mess with other users.

This will be on no interest to anyone not wanting to run a server or a home vps style linux box with no monitor, but it is a supported release and the first of the Pussies i will be supporting. To install stuff run apt-get update then apt-get install <programname>

A more game/ media/ desktop orientated Pussy will be released for the Rasp soon. It will depend on what apps the Pi is capable of running that determines what is added to Pussy Pie from this point on. Im not going to add anything that doesnt perform how its supposed to, and i will play to the Rasp Pi's strengths.